Life with Quinn has been hectic lately. Last week I was so burned out by Thursday, we skipped going to the Early Years drop-in.
We started the week with our last class of swimming lessons and I am proud to say our little guy passed his starfish class, and can now move on to being a Duck, although I don't think we'll sign him up for his next classes until the fall.
Tuesday we had a fun day with our accountant, and then off to meet with our minister to go over the details of Quinn's upcoming baptism.
Wednesday it was off to the first of three baby sign language classes.
Thursday we skipped drop-in, but I had to go to a dentist appointment that afternoon, so Quinn stayed home with daddy.
Friday Quinn and I went to the World Day of Prayer service at our church, then we took him out to the pub for a beer. I know it sounds bad, going out for a drink after church, but I kid you not, our minister was at the pub too enjoying a few cocktails. Actually a number of people from church were there.
Saturday it was off to Huntsville to watch our nephew Braiden play in a hockey tournament. We stayed over night and then hung out with them in the beautiful sunshine until about 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Anyway, that is the long story as to why there wasn't a post last week.
Time is going by so quickly lately, and Quinn will be 7 months old next week. eek.
Our newest adventure/experiment with our Quinny has been in the food department. As I said in an earlier post, I am making all of Quinn's baby food, and so far so good.
We starting out with the rice cereal for a few weeks then dove head first into real food. Well, real food, if you can call it that, blended up into a pulp, but the head first is a pretty accurate description if you look at Quinn after lunch.
There are many things to consider when introducing your little one to new foods. The first rule of thumb is you have to put your own tastes aside.
Rob and I eat a variety of fruits and veggies, but when it comes down to it we are pretty plain Jane.
There are a number of fruits and veggies that one of my baby food cook books recommend because of their rich nutrients and healthy fats, which are great for babies. Turns out, Rob and I have never tried some of these items.
I decided that I was going to defy everything I read about what to introduce first, veggies or fruit, and go with my own program of one veggie, then one fruit, and try to mix up the colours a bit. Turns out, there are a lot of orange veggies and fruit out there, which is a bit of a challenge.
We started our food adventure with the tried and true. Sweet potatoes. One of my personal favourites, and as it turns out, one of Quinn's too.
Great, this will be my secret weapon. My spoonful of sugar, if you will.
Next it was on to Avocado. I know, don't worry, most people give me a funny look too when I told them I gave him avocado as his first fruit, rather then banana.
Anyway, since Rob and I have never had avocado, or purchased an avocado, it was a little bit of an adventure. All of the avocados in the store were hard, so we had to wait a few days once we got it home before we could use it. We cut open the soft, ripe fruit, and weren't really sure what to think. We both gave it a taste, and to be honest we didn't really care for it, nor did we know if it was supposed to taste like that. Anyway, without hesitation I mashed it up and tried to feed it to Quinn. With a hesitant look on my face I gave him a spoonful. His reaction was to make a funny face and then gag.
So, I took the mashed up avocado and mixed it with some breastmilk and took my new favourite kitchen appliance, the hand blender, to it to make the texture a little more smooth.
Then I sat down again and put a smile on my face and made some yum, yum sounds and it went down a little easier this time.
I read in one of my books that your own aversions to certain foods can be sensed by your baby, and if you act like it is gross and yucky tasting, apparently your baby can pick up on this. I'm sure by this point you are thinking I really got sucked in this time, but I am now convinced it works.
After avocado we tried squash, broccoli, apple, banana, and mango, even though at the time I thought I was feeding him papaya. It's a long story, but it goes a little something like, I've never purchased either and the sign at the supermarket was wrong.
I am determined to let Quinn try everything and anything, even if I don't like it, or haven't tried it. And while he definitely isn't a fan of apple yet, I think it's not sweet enough for him, and the broccoli looks kind of gross all pureed, and isn't one of Quinny's favourites, one of my new pastimes is to see how much of the "gross" stuff I can get Quinn to eat by hiding it in the foods he does, like sweet potato, and of course my smile and yum, yum sounds.
Rob finds treating the spoon like an airplane or a boat works equally as well to get the broccoli down, even though he hasn't quite caught on to how mix the yucky green stuff with the yummy orange stuff, and then wonders why when he feeds Quinn he always has the yucky green stuff left over.
While my approach on the foods I am feeding Quinn isn't the tried and true of potato, peas and carrots, although they will come into the menu soon, my goal is to give Quinn as many tastes as possible, so he will continue to enjoy the healthy stuff for a long time.
And if this approach doesn't keep working, I'll move on to plan number two. It's a little something I call "what he doesn't know, won't hurt him."
Now, if you excuse me, I just have to track down those recipes I was given that sneak beets into brownies, and cauliflower into mac and cheese, just in case.
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